a famous city, and capital of a province of the same name, united to Dauphiny, with a university and a bishop's see, suffragan of Arles. It is seated in a fine large plain, watered by a vast number of little rivulets on the east side of the river Rhone. It is a very large ancient place, and was considerable in the time of the Romans, who adorned it with several buildings, of which there are still some ruins left, particularly of an amphitheatre, and a triumphal arch, which is almost entire, dedicated to Marius. This town was formerly much larger than it is at present, as appears from the traces of the ancient walls. The wall was in 1682 entirely demolished by order of Louis XIV. and the inhabitants were exposed to the fury of the solders. The town was restored to King William by the treaty of Ryswick; but after his death the French took it again, and expelled the Protestant inhabitants. By the the treaty of Utrecht it was confirmed to the crown of France, though the title is still retained in the house of Nassau. The title was first introduced into the family of Nassau, by the marriage of Claude de Chalons, the prince of Orange's sister, with the count of Nassau, 1530. The principality is a very small district, it being only twelve miles in length and nine in breadth, and the revenue amounts to about 500l. a year. The country is pleasant, and abounds with corn and fruit, but is exposed to violent winds. E. Long. 4. 49. N. Lat. 44. 9.

Maurice Prince of ORANGE. See MAURICE.

ORANGE River, also known by the name of the Great Orange. Great river, is situated in southern Africa, and is of considerable extent. It seems to take its rise about S. Lat. 30°, and E. Long. 28° from Greenwich, and joins the sea, after a west by north course for a number of leagues, between the great and little Namaquas, two tribes supposed to be of the same origin with the Hottentots. There are high cataracts in it, and it is subject to inundations like the Nile. Carnelians, calcedonies, agates and variolites are found upon the shores. The rains in the great mountains along the foot of which the Orange river runs, collecting their streams in its passage, commence in the month of November, and cause the inundations to take place towards the Namaqua country in the month of December. The nauseous custom of greasing the skin, from the great scarcity of water in many parts of South Africa, is rendered unnecessary among the people who inhabit the banks of this grand river; and of consequence they exhibit none of that filthy appearance which is characteristic of the Hottentots on the skirts of the colony.

ORANGE-Tree, in Botany. See Citrus, BOTANY Index.—Orange flowers are justly esteemed one of the finest perfumes; and though little used in medicine, yet the water distilled from them is accounted stomachic, cordial, and carminative. The fruit is cooling, and good in feverish disorders, and particularly in diarrhoas. Orange-peel is an agreeable aromatic, proper to repair and strengthen the stomach, and gives a very grateful flavour to any infusions or tinctures into whole compositions it enters. It is particularly useful in preparations of the bark: gives an agreeable warmth to the infusion; and, according to Dr Percival, considerably increases its virtue.

In the Philosophical Transactions, No 114. there is a very remarkable account of a tree standing in a grove near Florence, having an orange stock, which had been so grafted upon, that it became in its branches, leaves, flowers, and fruit, three-formed: some emulating the orange, some the lemon or citron, and some partaking of both forms in one; and what was very remarkable was, that these mixed fruits never produced any perfect seeds; sometimes there were no seeds at all in them, and sometimes only a few empty ones.

ORANGE-Dew, a kind of dew which falls in the spring time from the leaves of orange and lemon trees, which is extremely fine and subtle. M. de la Hire observing this, placed some flat pieces of glass under the leaves to receive it: and having procured some large drops of it, was desirous of discovering what it was. He soon found that it was not merely an aqueous fluid, because it did not evaporate in the air; and that it was not a resin, because it readily and perfectly mixed with water: it was natural then to suppose it a liquid gum; but neither did this, on examination, prove to be the case; for being laid on paper, it did not dry as the other liquid gums do. Its answering to none of these characters, and its being of the consistence of honey, and of a sweet sugar-like taste, gave a suspicion of its being a kind of manna; and whatever in the other trials had proved it not a resin, a gum, &c. all equally tends to prove that it is this substance.

ORANGE, Sea, in Natural History, a name given by Count Marfigli to a very remarkable species of marine substance, which he denominates a plant. It is tough and firm in its structure, and in many things resembles the common fucus; but instead of growing in the branched form which the generality of those substances have, it is round and hollow, and in every respect resembles the shape of an orange. It has, by way of root, some exceedingly fine filaments, which fasten themselves to the rocks, or to shells, stones, or any thing else that comes in the way. From these there grows no pedicle; but the body of the orange, as it is called, is fastened by them to the rock, or other solid substance. The orange itself is usually of about three or four inches in diameter; and while in the sea, is full of water, and even retains it when taken up. In this state it frequently weighs a pound and a half; but when the water is let out, and it is dried, it becomes a mere membrane, weighing scarce any thing. It is best preserved, by stuffing it with cotton as soon as the water is let out of it, and then hanging it up to dry. Its surface is irregular and rough, and its colour a dusky green on the outside, and a clearer but somewhat bluish green within; and its thickness is about an eighth part of an inch. When viewed by the microscope, it is seen to be all over covered with small glandules, or rather composed of them; for they stand so thick one by another as to leave no space between, and seem to make up the whole substance; so that it appears very like the rough hagreen skin used to cover toys. These are indeed so many hollow ducts, through which the sea-water finds a passage into the globe formed by this skin, and by this means it is kept always full and diffused; on cutting it with a pair of scissors, the water immediately runs out, and the skins collapse; but there is something extremely remarkable in this, for the whole substance, near the wounded place, is in motion, and seems as if alive, and sensible of the wound. The glandules are found full of water, and resembling small transparent bottles; and what goes to the structure of the plant beside these, is an assemblage of a vast number of filaments, all which are likewise hollow, and filled with a clear and transparent fluid.

There is another substance of this kind, mentioned and described by Count Marfigli, Triumfetti, and others, and called the ramoso or branched orange. This is very much of the nature of the former; but instead of consisting of one round globe, it is formed of several oblong ones all joined together, and representing the branches of some of the fucuses, only they are shorter; and these are all hollow and full of water, in the same manner as the single globes of the common kind. This has, by way of root, certain fine and slender filaments, which fasten it to the stones or shells near which it is produced; and it is of a dusky greenish colour on the surface, and of a fine bluish green within. The surface, viewed by the microscope, appears rough, as in the other, and the glandules are of the same kind, and are always found full of clear water.